It is often difficult for service personnel to accurately reproduce, diagnose, and/or repair vibrations identified by vehicle owners during a service visit. Such vibrations may result from imbalance in the rotational components of chassis systems (e.g., tire and wheel assembly), vibrations from driveline systems, or vibrations which may be due to other external conditions such as, for example, road conditions. Standard fixes and service techniques, such as rebalancing tires, are often offered in response to complaints of vehicle vibrations. However, unless the service personnel can recreate the conditions causing a particular issue identified by the vehicle owner, such standard fixes are often unsuccessful.
It is desirable, from points of view of a vehicle owner and service technicians, for the service shop to be able to accurately diagnose and fix vibrations of chassis and driveline components of a motor vehicle, within a single service visit made by the vehicle owner. Further, it is desirable, from the points of view of the vehicle owner and the service shop that unnecessary (e.g., mis-diagnosed; guess-and-try) repairs be avoided so as to conserve vehicle owner and service shop resources (e.g., time and money).
What is needed is an on-board vibration diagnostic and prognostic system that can                robustly extract vibration signatures; and        record and profile the detected signatures in a time cadence to facilitate making a prognostic decision,so that the service personnel can pinpoint the vibration source and to fix the vibration problem or recommend other repairs, in a single customer visit.        